Melamine decorative boards are decorative boards in which a surface layer (decorative layer) having a melamine resin is formed on the surface thereof, and are used in various fields in applications such as furniture, interior walls or vehicle interiors due to their favorable hardness, water resistance, soiling resistance and scratch resistance.
Since decorative melamine boards using a typical melamine resin have a hard surface hardness, they are unsuitable for post-forming (secondary forming) applications such as bending. In recent years, however, melamine resin for post-forming has been developed that is compatible with bending applications, and post-formable decorative boards using this resin can be bent when heated, enabling them to be used in applications such as doors. Moreover, the use of kraft paper or aluminum impregnated with phenol resin for the linings of decorative melamine boards enables the production of various combinations of decorative melamine boards according to the particular application. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a decorative melamine board that combines aluminum with a surface layer composed of melamine resin-impregnated paper that uses a melamine resin for post-forming. In addition, decorative melamine panels also include non-combustible decorative melamine boards that have become popular as materials for kitchen panels, and these currently consist mainly of non-combustible decorative melamine boards having the specifications of decorative boards using a glass fiber base material, fine aluminum hydroxide powder and the like.
However, in the decorative melamine board disclosed in Patent Document 1, a layer of kraft paper impregnated with phenol resin is required to adhere the decorative melamine layer and the aluminum, and due to the presence of this phenol resin layer, the thickness of the decorative melamine board increases. Consequently, it becomes difficult to reduce the thickness of the decorative melamine board and bending workability is limited, with bending workability being limited to a bending radius R of 4 mm even if heated.
In addition, in the case of a non-combustible decorative melamine board having the specifications of the decorative board described above, since the finished product is excessively thick, it is unable to demonstrate flexibility even if heated, and since it is highly rigid, it is unable to be easily used practically in fields simultaneously requiring non-combustibility and bending workability.